Jailbreak

Check out the most comprehensive jailbreaking coverage on the internet, including the latest news, apps, tweaks, and detailed tutorials about everything jailbreak.

MusicAppMods hides in-line album art and reveals hidden song info in Music app

I've covered a lot of impactful jailbreak tweaks over the last week, ranging from Convergance and FaceOff 7 to AppBox and Remote Messages. But, smaller tweaks that make minor modifications to iOS deserve some mention too.

MusicAppMods by Adam Spindler is a new extension that serves two purposes: it hides in-line album art and reveals hidden song information in the Music app. Keep reading for a quick rundown of the tweak… 

UnlockID is a jailbreak tweak that can unlock your Mac with Touch ID

UnlockID is a super-cool new jailbreak tweak that does exactly what the headline says—it allows you to unlock your Mac using the Touch ID sensor found on the iPhone 5s. Using Bluetooth Low Energy, the tweak features a Mac component that allows your iPhone 5s to communicate with your OS X installation.

Although the tweak's practicality may be up for debate, there's no debating the fact that this is one of the most innovate and coolest looking Touch ID tweaks we've seen thus far. We've taken UnlockID for a thorough walkthrough. Check out our hands-on video after the break.

Theme Thursday: Acies, Carla, Radiance and more

There has been a landslide of new themes released on Cydia in the past few weeks, some of which we covered in our recent roundup of the 10 best Winterboard themes for iOS 7. In an effort to continue that coverage, we are introducing a new series called Theme Thursday to showcase some of our favorite releases each week.

If you know of a good theme that isn't covered here, please leave your recommendations in the comments for inclusion in a future roundup. In the first edition, we take a look at Acies, Carla, Radiance and more… 

CleverPin lets you use an iPhone passcode only when you need it

Italian developer Filippo Bigarella has been working hard to update his jailbreak tweaks with iOS 7 support, highlighted by the release of Springtomize 3 over the weekend. With an update to that flagship tweak out of the way, Bigarella has followed up by pushing out a new version of CleverPin for iOS 7 and later.

You may recall our own Jeff Benjamin reviewing the original version of CleverPin, a security-based extension, nearly three years ago. Take a look at what has changed since then… 

Springtomize 3 updated with several bug fixes, improvements and new features

On the latest episode of Let's Talk Jailbreak, we discussed our love/hate relationship with the new Springtomize 3 jailbreak tweak. We love all of the customizable options it provides, but we hate a lot of the tiny bugs that came with it.

Well, I'm happy to report that Filippo Bigarella has posted a big update for Springtomize 3 and it appears to squash a lot of these bugs. It also offers other improvements, as well as new features, including no more required re-spring...

AppBox adds an app launcher to your Lock screen

I have been testing a lot of Lock screen jailbreak tweaks over the past few weeks, and quite honestly I have walked away disappointed on more than a few occasions. A lot of add-ons that are dependent upon frameworks like Cydget have performed poorly on my iPhone, some sending me into Safe Mode, and this has caused me to be increasingly selective about which packages I choose to install on my device.

Having said that, a new jailbreak tweak called AppBox is one that is quality enough to meet my high standards for recommendation. The extension adds an additional page to the Lock screen, accessible by swiping left, with a grid of icons for quickly launching apps without fully unlocking your device. The tweak has a number of options that can be adjusted, so dive in and let's take a look… 

How to send iMessages from any web browser on any operating system

Following in the footsteps of successful cross-platform messaging services like BlackBerry Messenger and WhatsApp, iMessage was released in late 2011 as a way for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users to send unlimited messages between each other. Apple then went on to release Messages for OS X Mountain Lion the following year, allowing Mac users to join the conversation.

But what if you're a Windows or Linux user, or you're away on travel without access to the Mac you normally use? Worry not, as Remote Messages has been updated with support for iOS 7 and 64-bit devices. The popular jailbreak tweak developed by Beast Soft is a browser-based front end for the Messages app on iOS devices. Find out what that means ahead… 

Flex 2: create your own jailbreak tweaks for iOS 7

When a jailbreak app inspires the creation of its very own subreddit, you know it's something special. Flex 2 is the follow up to one of the most popular apps of last year, and like its predecessor, it allows you to change the way your favorite apps look and feel without having to know the intricacies of iOS development.

To be sure, it doesn't hurt to have some knowledge of development in general, and the logic behind the way things work, but it's not a requirement. Flex features a well-designed and intuitive interface to help you easily modify the way your favorite apps work.

Flex 2 is a much-improved version of its predecessor, and has been re-built from the ground up for iOS 7. But even if you don't run iOS 7, Flex has maintained its compatibility with both iOS 5, and iOS 6, a remarkable feat for a jailbreak app of this nature.

For those of you new to Flex, you should watch our video walkthrough inside for a demonstration of how it works. If you're already a Flex user, then check inside for some of the vital upgrade details that make Flex 2 a worthy successor.

Convergance takes your Lock screen in a bold new direction

Apple has always exercised fine-tuned control over iOS by making it a relatively closed platform, at least compared to Android. That is one of the main reasons why jailbreaking exists in the first place, with a major draw being the ability to customize an iPhone or iPad far beyond what is traditionally allowed. Convergance is an upcoming project for iOS 7 that aims to do just that, taking the Lock screen in a bold new direction with a crisp design, quick toggles and more… 

SwitcherBlur: blur the apps in the app switcher

SwitcherBlur is a recently released tweak that does one very simple thing: it adds blur to the app cards in the iOS 7 app switcher. SwitcherBlur uses a simple low-level gaussian blur on all of the app cards, except for the app that you just came from. The tweak is similar to BioLockdown, in that you can protect the contents of your app switcher cards from prying eyes.

But that's about where the comparisons to the feature-rich BioLockdown end. SwitcherBlur prides itself on simplicity, as you'll see in our brief video walkthrough inside.

exKey: add an extra row of keys to the iOS keyboard

exKey is a jailbreak tweak that adds an additional fifth row of keys to the stock keyboard in iOS. The tweak, which works on iOS 5 through iOS 7, allows users to type more efficiently, because they should spend less time switching between the numeric and alpha keys.

When installed and in normal alpha mode, you'll see a set of numeric keys, digits 0-9, grace the top of the keyboard as the new fifth row. When you switch to the numeric keypad, the numbers are replaced with special character symbols.

We've taken exKey for spin in our video walkthrough. Take a look inside for more details on how this productivity jailbreak tweak works.

Saurik lists the jailbreak tweaks he has installed on his iPhone

Since we closely cover the jailbreak community here at iDB, we are often asked by readers what apps and tweaks we have installed. Between us, we probably try a dozen new tweaks a week, or more, so sometimes we have stuff on our devices that others may not know about.

With that in mind, you can only imagine how often Saurik, the founder of Cydia, gets asked what packages he has installed on his device. Well for those of you wondering, he answered the question last night in a Reddit thread and his list of tweaks is actually pretty interesting...